Dancing In Your Footsteps

2: Riley

I wasn't expecting it when the door bust open suddenly just moments later as I sat on the edge of the bottom bunk, unpacking my bags and folding my clothes neatly into the spare wardrobe that hadn't been touched.

A blonde was quick to enter and she slams the door behind her. I turn my head to find her cheeks appeared to be quite red too, as if she had been arguing with someone.

"Have you ever argued with your parents so much you wonder how you're even related to them?" she asks, to which I shrug my shoulders.

I wouldn't have known, considering both of my parents were absent in my life right now, but she didn't need to know that when I don't even know who she is yet.

"Hey, you're the new girl, aren't you?" she asks once she takes a moment to look at me properly. I stand up so I could get a proper look at her and I smile. She was probably the only girl here who didn't have a somewhat bitchy facial expression.

"Yeah, I'm Riley," I tell her.

She smiles and I await her telling me her own name but she seemed almost clueless in that field. Instead she groans once she takes a look around.

"Ugh, great. I've been put with miss 'Queen Bee' again this year," she whines as she throws herself down onto her bunk, tossing all her luggage aside too. "You're lucky I was put in here with you both and not one of her triplets."

"Triplets?"

"Stephanie, Amanda and Chloe. They're not actually triplets but that's what everyone calls them. Steph and Amanda are almost as bad as Beth, the Queen Bee herself. Chloe's more of just a follower."

She takes in the look on my face and then chuckles lightly, propping herself up on her elbows. "Don't worry, you'll get the gist of everything sooner or later."

I sigh as I hover by the windowsill, trying to process everything. "I don't know," I mutter. "Everything here just seems so..."

"Extra?" she questions, to which I nod. "Yeah, I know. Probably because Beth's mother is headmistress."

"And her dad?"

"He's head of the boys' academy uphill."

"Shocker," I mumble.

She smirks at my tone of voice but then takes a moment to look around until her eyes land on a photo frame I had put up on my bedside drawer of Emily, Brady and I.

"That girl's your sister? Wasn't she like head girl here for three consecutive years?"

"Yep," I respond briskly. She smirks to herself a little. "That must be your brother then. I saw you in the parking lot earlier, hugging him. He was way too young to be your father and I didn't think you looked like the type to have a boyfriend that much older than you."

"Ew! Gross. No," I scoff. "And I'm not just saying that because he's my brother, but because there's also a ten year age gap between us."

She chuckles and shakes her head. "Well, I mean, if he's available at any point in time-"

I send her a warning look and she titters. "I'm joking, Ri. It's Beth who would say something like that, not me."

"It's me who would say something like what?" a rather loud voice taunts suddenly when the door bursts open again.

Honestly, it was like there wasn't a single girl in this school who knew how to be calm. She was tall and wore a high ponytail. She wore a skirt so short it just about covered her thighs and a low cut halter neck top.

"Ugh, seriously?" she mutters once she takes in our presence. "I get stuck with Goldilocks for the second year in a row and new blood? This is going to be the worst year of my life."

"You do realise there are wars going on, right? And poverty? And world hunger? I'm pretty sure you'll survive," the blonde whose name I still didn't know quips back sarcastically.

Beth rolls her eyes but keeps her head held high as she crosses her arms over her chest. It's only when her eyes meet mine that I realise she was the brunette who had been eyeing me in the parking lot earlier.

"Whatever, Michelle," Beth says, filling me in on the name of the blonde. "Just make sure you and your sidekick don't go anywhere near me. And make sure she knows to stay away from my boyfriend too."

I wait for her to leave and slam the door shut behind her before I look to Michelle questioningly.

"Boyfriend?"

"James Carter. She's been obsessed with him for years. He's head-boy at the boys school. They aren't really together though, it's all in her head."

"Any chance he likes leather jackets and has dark curly hair?" She looks at me with a smirk as she wriggles her eyebrows.

"You've bumped into him before?"

"Something like that," I respond as I drift off in thought.

"Well you can ignore Bethany. She tries to make herself look better than everyone else all the time. They're doing a joint mixer tonight out at Parkour Alley. You can't miss it," she exclaims.

She hops off her bed and clambers over towards the wardrobe I had just spent time filling up with my clothes. But when she looks through them, she frowns.

"But first, we'll have to go and do a serious shopping spree. You in?"

"It doesn't seem like I have much of a choice," I exhale, making her smile widen when she takes hold of my hand and begins to drag me away with her, out of the dorm room completely.

I had been here for less than an hour and I could already tell things here were going to be a lot more complicated than I originally thought.